Husbands' Awareness of Sanhujori, Needs for Education and Family Strength.

PURPOSE: We conducted a descriptive study to: 1) understand how husbands are aware of the importance of Sanhujoiri(i.e, Korean traditional postpartum care) and 2) identify their needs to learn how to take care of postpartum women and new-borns and to strengthen family bonding. METHODS: The subjects consisted of 123 husbands who had children under the age of 5 years. Data were analyzed with t-test, one-way ANOVA, Scheffe's test, and Pearson's correlation. RESULTS: The mean age of subjects was 37.1+/-4.63 years. The mean scores of awareness, needs for education on postpartum mother and newborn care, and family strength were 4.57+/-1.18, 4.61+/-1.18, 4.92+/-1.07, and 4.01+/-0.95, respectively, indicating higher scores. There were statistically significant differences in awareness (F=5.08, p<.05), newborn care (F=3.70, p<.05), and family strength (F=4.64, p<.05) by husband's role in Sanhujori There was a positive correlation among study variables. CONCLUSION: This study shows that even though husbands want to participate in Sanhujori, they do not have enough information on Sanhujori and mother/newborn care and adequate paternity leave. Realistic paternity leave system and effective Couple Centered Childbearing (from pregnancy to postpartum) Education Program CCCEP development are required to help husbands' participation in mother/newborn care with confidence and competence in home based Sanhujori.

Ethnographic Research on Adjustment of Mothers Caring for their Cancer Children in Korea.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to provide the basic data to develop the effective nursing intervention for the parent who have children with cancer by acquiring the deeper understanding of the mothers' adjustment of caring for their children with cancer. METHODS: The ethnographic research method was used to find out the pattern of caring adjustment in Korean cultural context. Informants consisted of 12 mothers who were caring for their children with cancer. The data were collected using in-depth interviews, participant observation, and telephone interviews by maximum variation purposive sampling. The data were analyzed following Spradley's methodology. RESULTS: The mothers' caring adjustment were organized into one cultural theme, four categories, and twelve properties. The cultural theme was 'standing alone as a mother with sin'. The four categories were 'blaming for falling illness', 'overcoming with motherhood', 'desperate struggling with side effects', and 'establishing new network as a dependent'. CONCLUSION: For the mothers who are caring children with cancer, the supportive nursing intervention based on the deeper understanding of mothers' pattern of caring adjustment for their children and centered on facilitating effective adjustment in each cultural context especially from the very early stage of caring in the hospital ward is extremely required.

Phenomenological Study on Aging of Women in 40's and 50's: Applying the Parse's Theory.

PURPOSE: This study was done to explore the essence and meaning of the experience of 'aging,' as a process of 40's and 50's women in Korea by applying the Parse's Human Becoming theory (2002). METHODS: Data was collected from February to April, 2013, using the phenomenological research method. Data was collected through in-depth informal interview and analyzed following Colaizzi method. After IRB permission and informed consent from the participants, all interviews were recorded with MP3 recorder and transcribed for analysis. RESULTS: Data analysis revealed 112 of meanings, 33 key subject words, 8 subject phrases, and 4 categories. The main themes were elaborated as 'going down' ('Being changed of body and mind', 'Being considered on my identity'), 'going up' ('Being expanded of productive role', 'Being transcendent multi-dimensionally'), 'pausing' ('Becoming more thoughtful about family', 'Looking back'), 'going forward again' ('Age is just a number, 'Contemplating of life and death'). Experiences in aging among women in 40's and 50's enlightened with Parse's theory of Human Becoming in terms of 'going down', 'going up', 'pausing', 'going forward again' appeared simultaneously, rather than consecutively. CONCLUSION: Women in 40's and 50's require holistic nursing intervention with physical, psychological, socio-economical, and spiritual aspects, rather than focusing on problematic physical symptom relief and prevention of further conditions. It is recommended to develop various nursing intervention considering on different environment, type of experience, and level of human becoming, individually.

[Factors influencing quality of life in married immigrant women in Korea].

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing quality of life of married immigrant women in Korea. METHODS: The participants included 508 married immigrant women who met the eligibility criteria and agreed to participate in the study. Participants were evaluated for subjective assessment of married immigrant-related constructs using a self-report questionnaire, for self-esteem, self-efficacy, and quality of life (QOL). The analysis was done using SPSS for Windows, version 10.1, and included stepwise regression. RESULTS: The major findings were as follows; 1) There were significant relationships between marital satisfaction (r=.39, p=.001), violence by the husband during the couple's arguments (r= -.24, p<.001), satisfaction with life in Korea (r=.39, p<.001), self-esteem (r=.16, p<.001), self-efficacy (r=.51, p<.001) and quality of life. 2) Marital satisfaction, self-efficacy, education level and satisfaction life with in Korea were significant factors, which explained 53% of the variance in quality of life (F=43.97, p<.001). Multiple regression analysis revealed that a powerful predictor of QOL for married immigrant women was self-efficacy. CONCLUSION: Developing nursing interventions to enhance self-efficacy toward improvement of QOL among married immigrant women is recommended.

[The effects of a support group intervention on the burden of primary family caregivers of stroke patients].

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the effects of a support group intervention on the burden of primary family caregivers of stroke patients. METHOD: A nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. The subjects were 36 primary family caregivers of stroke patients [experimental(N=18) and control(N=18) groups] in a neurosurgery ward of a university hospital. The experimental group members participated in six sessions of a support group intervention for two weeks and the degree of their caregiving burden was evaluated. Data was analyzed by Chi-square tests, t-tests, and paired t-tests using SPSS 10.0. RESULT: The experimental group had a significantly lower total burden score (t=2.061, p= .047)and sub-scales of emotional(t=-3.319, p= .002), time-dependent(t=-2.045, p= .049) and developmental(t=-2.656, p= .012) burden scores than the control group, while no significant differences were found in physical, social or financial burden scores between the two groups. Within the experimental group, there was a significant decrease in physical(t=2.507, p= .023), emotional(t=4.754, p= .000), social(t=2.932, p= .009), time- dependent(t=5.015, p= .000) and developmental(t=7.541, p= .000) burden scores but not the financial burden score. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that a support group intervention can be utilized as an effective nursing program to reduce the burden of primary family caregivers of stroke patients.

[Comparison of quality of life between kidney transplant and hemodialysis patients].

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to discover kidney transplant and hemodialysis patients' quality of life(QOL) and provide basic data to improve their QOL. METHOD: One hundred two hemodialysis patients and 106 kidney transplant patients were given a self-administered questionnaire from Mar. 6 to Mar. 31, 2006. The instrument consisted of demographic variables, therapeutic-related characteristics and QOL. Collected data was processed using the SPSS 12.0 statistical program for real numbers, percentages, ANCOVA, t-test, ANOVA, Stepwise multiple regression and the Scheffe test. RESULTS: Kidney transplantpatients' QOL was higher than hemodialysis patients. The demographic variables which showed a significant difference in overall QOL were religion, children and monthly income for kidney transplantpatients and educational background for hemodialysis patients. The therapeutic-related variable which showed a significant difference in overall QOL was the patients' perceived health condition for both groups. The influencing factor on overall QOL for both groups was the health condition perceived by themselves. The total variance of the variable for QOL was 42% for kidney transplant patients and 19% for hemodialysis patients. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that kidney transplant patients have a higher QOL and how patients perceive their health is the strongest influencing factor for QOL. However, there is a large difference between the demand and supply of kidney donors. To solve this problem the standards for donation should be reviewed and revised.